


Mutual Musical Education

by betheflame



Series: Shorts & Drabbles 2019 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Fluff, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Happily Ever After, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, One Shot, Road Trips, Songfic, Steve Rogers and the 21st Century
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 12:44:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19394413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: “When I ‘Hey, Jude’, what do you say?”“I would say my name isn’t Jude.”Tony inhaled deeply. “This is what I was afraid of. Jarvis, please send ‘Brit Invasion Summary’ Playlist to Steve’s StarkPhone.”“Presently, sir,” Jarvis replied.“I don’t know what’s happening,” Steve said.“I’m changing your life, Cap,” Tony grinned. “Let me know what you think.” He slapped Steve’s shoulder and headed back to his workshop.++++In which Steve learns the importance of road trips and Tony learns about Gershwin.Set at some point that only exists in my heart where Bucky was with them and Ultron and Civil War never happened.





	Mutual Musical Education

“Okay,” Tony plopped down on the couch next to Steve one Sunday afternoon when the Avengers were between missions. “We have a lot of really serious problems going on, but I think I’ve discovered the most serious.”

Steve recognized the tone Tony was deploying as one not to take literally, so he quirked an eyebrow, continued to ignore him, and grabbed a different charcoal pencil. _I just need to figure out how to get the shading on Buck’s arm…_

“When I ‘Hey, Jude’, what do you say?”

“I would say my name isn’t Jude.”

Tony inhaled deeply. “This is what I was afraid of. Jarvis, please send ‘Brit Invasion Summary’ Playlist to Steve’s StarkPhone.”

“Presently, sir,” Jarvis replied. 

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Steve said. 

“I’m changing your life, Cap,” Tony grinned. “Let me know what you think.” He slapped Steve’s shoulder and headed back to his workshop. 

After several truly rocky years and a lot of Nat sitting Steve down and telling him to pull his head out of his ass, and Bucky telling him the same thing through repeated kickboxing sessions, Steve had come around on Tony Stark. Steve had never met someone like Tony, who was so wound tight with defensive mechanisms that he decided why you hated him before you got a chance to learn his name, and so it was really rewarding every time Tony took off a piece of his armor and let Steve see his soul. 

“I’m not getting out of this, am I?” Steve murmured. 

“All evidence points to no, sir, but I can promise the music is enjoyed by millions, so hopefully it will not be too painful.”

“Oh, this is about music?” Steve brightened. “I can listen to music. Give it a go, Jarvis.”

I like music, Steve thought to himself as he grabbed his sketchpad and settled in. This should be fun, I could use the edu-

“JARVIS WHAT IS THIS?”

The noise turned down. “This is ‘You’ve Really Got Me’ by the Kinks,” Jarvis replied. “One of Sir’s personal favorites?”

“Considering Sir doesn’t value his ear drums, I’m not surprised. Is there something, I don’t know…”

“Softer, Captain Rogers?”

“Or at least less of that,” Steve gesticulated around. 

“I believe you may enjoy this, Captain,” Jarvis remarked as “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” came through the speakers. 

“Well, this is fun,” Steve remarked. 

“I believe the term is ‘groovy’, Captain,” Jarvis replied. 

“Well, more groovy music, Jarvis, keep it coming,” Steve replied, as he resumed his sketch.

_____________________________

_Tony –_

_Yes to the Beatles, The Who, and the Searchers. No to the Kinks. Next?_

_Cap_

Tony smiled and opened his music library, creating a master list of Beatles tunes before moving on to the Who.

_____________________________

_Cap –_

_All Beatles tunes worth your time are in your account – please ignore anything else the Internet tells you to listen to. I am your Beatles sherpa, ignore all others._

_I noticed there was no reaction to the Stones, which is unacceptable, so we’re doubling down._

_Tony_

_____________________________

And that’s how it started. Tony would make music appear on Steve’s phone, Steve would rate and react, and more music would show up. After several weeks, Steve had come to a real appreciation for a lot of the music he had missed.

“Oh, is that one of Stark’s latest mix-tapes?” Clint asked one day. 

“Stark’s what?”

“Mix-tapes. It’s a thing from when we were kids – you taped songs off the radio and if you liked someone, you’d do, like, secret messages in the songs so that you could tell them you liked them without telling them.”

Steve blinked. “I am never dating again.”

Clint chuckled and drew a chair up next to Steve. “What’s the latest one? You’ve moved through all the major movements and decades, right? So he’s on to themes? That’s what you said last week.”

Steve nodded. “Today’s theme is Road Trip Tunes.”

“Epic theme,” Clint nodded and Steve handed his phone over to Clint. The other man scrolled for a few minutes and then nodded slowly. 

“He’s got the classics, but to really enjoy them, you gotta, you know, be on a road trip. Take one of his cars and drive north.”

_____________________________

“You’re going on a what?” Bucky stopped the treadmill and stared at his friend.

“A road trip,” Steve replied. “Clint says it’s a thing that happened while we were sleeping. Evidently the two more important elements are snacks – which Jarvis is ordering for me – and tunes, which Tony already provided.”

“Be careful, jerk,” Bucky said with a headshake. 

“What?”

Bucky stared at him. “He’s making you mix tapes. Nat said they’re the 1980s equivalent of asking someone to dance, so be careful.”

“I’m always careful,” Steve protested as Bucky howled in laughter. 

“You have never been careful a day in your fucking life, Stevie, which is one of the things I love about you, but, Stark? Yeah, just… yeah.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Steve said with a touch of righteous indignation. 

Bucky rolled his eyes and turned the treadmill back on. “Okay, so we’re doing it this way. Just make sure you have condoms in that little snack bag?”

Steve glared at Bucky, who smirked in return.

_____________________________

“Sir, Captain Rogers has requested your presence in the garage.”

Tony furrowed his brow and flipped up his welding mask. “Now?”

Jarvis cleared his throat. “Well, he did say earliest convenience, but I doubt he realized you haven’t showered in four days.”

“Sass, J, I won’t stand for it,” Tony said. “How long have I been here?”

“Five days, four hours, and thirteen minutes. You are approaching the deadline Ms. Potts set for me to alert her.”

“Well, I like to avoid that at all costs, so tell Cap to give me 15 and that whatever we’re doing better involve a cheeseburger.”

“Yes, Sir.”

_____________________________

“What the fuck is this?”

Steve blushed and held up a grocery bag. “You made me a playlist of Road Trip tunes, and Clint said they need to be experienced on a road trip. I had Jarvis explain protocols to me and it sounded like Fritos were a big deal, so I went shopping, and then he told me you haven’t left the Tower in about two weeks, so I figured you needed some Vitamin D. Let’s go cruising, Tony.”

“No one calls it that, Archie, but I can’t argue with Legolas’ logic. In order to truly appreciate some of these, wind must be running through the proverbial hair and since this is your virgin experience, I say Corvette.”

Tony grabbed the keys, gestured to the car, and ignored Steve’s slight blush at Tony’s use of the word virgin. 

They headed out of the city and wound their way up 9 along the Hudson River. They pulled over in Sleepy Hollow, which Steve was shocked to learn was a real town still and Tony was surprised to learn was where the Headless Horseman tale came from. Tony sang along loudly to Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac and CCR and Bruno Mars and even a few boyband songs that made Steve cock an eyebrow. 

“Tony, even I know that this is a boy band and that you hate boy bands.”

“I never said that I hate boy bands, I just said I wasn’t interested in joining one, but once you told me the mandatory choreography was out and that I’d be allowed to keep my own paychecks, I’ve come around to the idea. Besides, this song was everywhere when I was in college. Rhodey dragged me to a Wham! concert to impress this Wellsley woman and it was not the worst night of my life.”

“What was the worst night of your life?”

“When Pepper made me go see that experimental theater thing where they birthed themselves out of silicone eggs.”

“Come again?”

“Stevo, they had corn syrup birthing fluid. What is seen cannot be unseen.”

Finally, Tony got off the highway at a sign for a state park and drove them to a cliff overlooking the valley. The day was winding down and the sunset promised to be stunning. They had stopped for fast food dinner a few miles back and now enjoyed a picnic on the hood of Tony’s car. 

“When Howard was traveling, this is where Mom and I would come,” Tony said quietly. “There’s a big old manor house hotel thing not far from here and it was ritzy enough that Howard didn’t blink an eye when Mom told him she was taking me up here for etiquette practice.” 

“Was this before college?”

Tony nodded and absentmindedly ate a fry. “My first memory of this I must have been 5 and we stopped twenty-one days after my 10th birthday.”

“That’s specific,” Steve said slowly. 

Tony took a deep breath. “I remember because my 10th birthday is when Howard broke two of my ribs, my right pelvis, and my jaw. I was in the hospital for 21 days and then Mom brought me up here.”

“Fuck, Tony,” Steve breathed.

“Oh Jesus, Steve, it’s not bad enough to make you use profanity,” Tony winked. “But, yeah. Coulson told me you were asking about Howard as a dad and I don’t talk about him, I don’t, for a lot of reasons, but if you’re going to keep a torch going for him, I wanted you to know that he was a mean fucking son of a bitch after you went in the ice.” Tony took a sip of his Coke and continued. “Aunt Peggy told me you guys were something else together and that he changed a lot once they couldn’t find you, and all the history books that say he was a genius weren’t wrong, I was just more of one and that fucking… Jarvis is the only reason I’m alive, okay? Jarvis and kind of Mom, but Mom spent a lot of time on pills to escape, I think, and I just… 

“My 10th birthday was the first time I made a fully articulated robot arm. Howard had been trying to do it for about ten years and it took me three months. When we were up here, Mom explained that he felt really jealous, which even a 10-year-old knows their father isn’t supposed to feel about them and told me to just stop showing Howard anything and that’s how we’d survive.”

Tony barked out a laugh. “Pepper put me in therapy after the cave, you know. She made a condition of her employment, which I wasn’t dumb enough to fuck around with. I went a few times and then it just… anyway, I do remember one thing the dude said and it was that the most important thing I could do going forward is to decide who was worth my honesty and who was worth my performance.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Steve confessed. 

“I didn’t either,” Tony said. “But Pep did, thank fuck, so it comes down to who only sees me in the Armani and who sees me in the workshop. I’m both of those people, the dude told me, but the workshop is where I’m not Howard’s kid, I get to be Jarvis and Maria’s and that’s really special and something I’ve never let the public see, so why start now.”

“So who’s kid is Iron Man?”

“Mine,” Tony said quickly, and firmly. “And yours.” That second phrase was said a lot quieter. 

Steve was quiet for a minute. “I don’t know what that means.”

“Cap, I’m really going to need you to learn to read my mind,” Tony smiled sadly. “But it means you’re worth my honesty, I guess, but more than that, you’ve made me better at this job and if you tell another living soul that I said that I will blast you.”

“I would expect nothing less,” Steve smiled. “But you make me better at my job, too, Tony.”

Tony looked over at him and visibly brightened. “Yeah?”

Steve nodded slowly. “You make me better, period.”

Tony, for the first time in Steve’s memory sat in complete silence for a few beats after that. 

And then… 

Then something happened that Steve hadn’t realized just how badly he needed. 

Tony reached over and held his hand. 

“I think I’d like to do this again, Cap,” Tony whispered. 

“The hand holding or the driving?”

“Yes.”

“Me too, Tony,” Steve whispered back. “Both and more.”

“Yes.”

The pair sat like that for a while, until finally Steve heard _fuck it_ and found Tony’s mouth pressed to his. Pausing for the briefest of seconds, he opened his lips to Tony’s tongue and… 

_Home._

That word was the only coherent thought Steve had as hands and teeth and breath and bodies moved with a ferocity Steve didn’t know he was capable of. 

“Well,” Tony breathed after they finally pulled apart. “Archie, necking wasn’t on the list, but I can’t say I’m upset about it.”

“Well, Betty, I wanted the full experience.”

Tony laughed and checked his watch. “We should get back.”

“Should we?” Steve cocked an eyebrow. “I thought you said there was a pretty nice hotel around here.”

Tony blinked. “Yes? Now? I mean? Yes? You are, yes?”

Steve grinned, absolutely adoring how quickly he had knocked Tony off his game. “True or false, you’ve been making me mix tapes.”

“I mean, those are…”

“True or false?”

“True.”

“True or false, mix tapes are how you tell someone you like them?”

“Sometimes, yeah, I mean, but…”

“Tony, last week you made me entire list of songs with Captain, then a list with songs about travel, then one about sex in hotel rooms, so I understand that I’m dense, but I’m honestly a little insulted,” Steve smiled as he climbed off the hood of the car and reached into the back seat. “But let’s clear up one thing real fast. I have never and will never hold a torch for Howard Stark. His kid? Different story.”

“Are those?”

“I’m not a tactical genius for nothing, Stark. Get back in the fucking car.”

_____________________________

“That was a fucking long day trip, Stevie,” Bucky commented when Tony and Steve got back to the Tower a few days later.

Steve shrugged. “Road trips are supposed to be flexible. We just kind of went with it.”

“Huh,” Bucky said around a mouthful of cereal. 

“What?”

“Explains the giant hickey on your neck, that’s all.”

Steve started to roll his eyes and then just smirked. 

“That whole innocent ‘what’s a road trip’, ‘what’s a playlist’ act,” Bucky started to laugh. “None of them know what a little shit you are.”

“Thanks for playing along, Buck.”

“Anytime, jerk.”

_____________________________

_T –_

_My turn. Tux, rooftop. 7pm._

_S_

Tony clutched the note a little nervously, having no idea what Steve was planning. It had been about six months since their first road trip and they’d been on a few others since, but mostly they’d been in his workshop, chatting as he tinkered, Steve slowly sketching to the sounds of various playlists. Tony had never been so happy and he was, predictably, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He opened the door to the rooftop garden and found Steve – also in a tux, which really should be _fucking illegal_ it’s so perfect – and a small band with a vocalist who looked like they had stepped out of the Cotton Club. 

“Don’t worry. We can trust them,” Steve smiled. “Buck and Pep threatened them with dismemberment and/or lawsuits if they squawked.”

“What is happening?”

“Well, handsome,” Steve said, holding out his hand to Tony. “We didn’t do mix tapes in my day, so if you wanted someone to know you wanted to step out with them, you had to actually step out. Plus, our music wasn’t on a file, it was live and that was better, so these folks have agreed to help with a little mutual musical education. So, Mr. Stark, you’re a real handsome fella, could I have this dance?”

Tony grinned as the music started. “Why, Mr. Rogers, I’d be honored.”

“It’s actually Captain, you know.”

“Is it?”

“I’m shipping out in a few days,” Steve said with a twinkle in his eye, hoping Tony would play along. 

“Well then we better make the most of it, Captain,” Tony smiled as the vocalist started in on a song he vaguely recognized. “What is this?”

“This, Tony,” Steve said quietly. “Is the song I have dreamed of dancing with someone to since I was five feet nothing and only Buck knew. ‘The Man I Love’ by George and Ira Gershwin.”

And then because in some past life Tony had done someone a really big favor or something, Steve started to sing. 

_Someday he'll come along_  
_The man I love ___  
_And he'll be big and strong_  
_The man I love_

____

_And when he comes my way_  
_I'll do my best to make him stay_  
_He'll look at me and smile_  
_I'll understand_

_____ _

_Then in a little while_  
_He'll take my hand_  
_And though it seems absurd_  
_I know we both won't say a word_

_____ _

_Maybe I shall meet him Sunday_  
_Maybe Monday, maybe not_  
_Still I'm sure to meet him one day_  
_Maybe Tuesday will be my good news day_

_____ _

_____ _

_He'll build a little home_  
_That's meant for two_  
_From which I'll never roam_  
_Who would, would you_  
_And so all else above_  
_I'm dreaming of the man I love_

_____ _

_____ _

Steve’s voice wasn’t… amazing or anything, and he drifted in and out of the lyrics so that Tony could still hear the woman and the band, but Tony could tell the phrases he sang were intentional and all of a sudden Tony’s body was too small for his heart. 

“Me too,” Tony whispered. “Me too, Stevo.”

As the band played on, segueing from Gershwin to Glen Miller to Billie Holliday and back to Gershwin, Tony and Steve danced and talked and kissed and dreamed and planned and hoped. Many hours later, when the night was over and the band had headed home, they ended up in the kitchen rummaging for snacks. 

“I like that all versions of musical wooing involve food,” Tony said around a mouthful of nachos Steve had just pulled out of the oven.

“All versions of falling in love should involve food,” Steve said, giving Tony a quick kiss on his forehead as he sat down at the table. 

“Steve, that was something, your little mutual musical education up there,” Tony said. 

Steve smiled. “It’s just another one of my dreams you made come true.”

Tony groaned. “God you are a cheeseball, Grandpa.”

“But I’m your cheeseball,” Steve smiled. 

“Damn straight.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works.


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